When I see a question like this (see details) and it makes me ponder does it mean I have little faith OR?

Question

that I'm just dumb, OR that my faith wasn't strong in the first place?

Here's the question:
If god has a pre-destined plan for all of us, then what is the point of having free will?

Because, me... I don't know the answer - and I think it's a valid question. What's that mean?

Guys, I have absolutely NO choice but to put this to a vote. I want to give best answer to so many of the answers here it's not even funny. I love y'all my R&S peeps!

Answer 1

It means you're open minded, and that is a very good thing. I'm Agnostic, but I think that (in the context of religion) free will is about choosing your faith after weighing it against the alternatives.

Closed-minded people ignore the alternatives completely, and therefore aren't really excersizing their free will.

So weigh the options, and do research as you feel necessary. If you choose to believe that God is real, and has a master plan, then do so knowing that you came to that conclusion by using your free will, rather than simply being ingorant to everything else.

Answer 2

This was the whole conflict between the Calvinists and the Arminists. It is a question that is rooted deep in the theology of the Judaic source of your religion and none of your theologists have been able to figure it out yet.
To me it simply indicates that Christianity is very deeply flawed. So deeply flawed that the root of this problem is in the actual definitions of your God itself.
If your God knows the future and the fate of everything. If it is all part of a divine plan then there is no freewill because even your choices have already been decided.
If the claim that we have free will is true in any meaningful way then the future is undecided until we make our choices. In that case there is no divine plan or foreknowledge God could have.

I hope this at least make the paradox clear.

Your religion has in this case two mutually exclusive statements. At the most only one can be true. However both can be false. We can unask this question and simply ask if God can possess mutually exclusive properties at the same time. In other words can God know the future and not know the future at the same time.

You are getting a lot of answers trying to wiggle around this by stating that God has a plan and we have a choice to follow it or not. However that is not what the bible claims at all, and such arguments simply ask you to accept a non-answer to the paradox.


You might hate me saying this at this point but,
"Atheism, you know it makes sense."

Answer 3

They've been battling over that one for many, many centuries.
I've been pondering it ever since we were confronted with the following Chaucer passage at school:

"But what that God forewot must needes be,
After th' opinion of certain clerkes.
Witness on him that any perfect clerk is,
That in school is great altercation
In this matter, and great disputation,
And hath been of an hundred thousand men.
But I ne cannot boult it to the bren,
As can the holy doctor Augustine,
Or Boece, or the bishop Bradwardine,
Whether that Godde's worthy foreweeting
Straineth me needly for to do a thing
(Needly call I simple necessity),
Or elles if free choice be granted me
To do that same thing, or do it not,
Though God forewot it ere that it was wrought;
Or if his weeting straineth never a deal,
But by necessity conditionel. not at all".

My mind is still reeling from it. Every time I think that I have an explanation, I come up with a snag. How can our small, finite minds ever grasp the mighty things of God?

Answer 4

It means that you're awake and aware and that something has rattled your cage, except that you don't live in a cage like lots of people. Challenges to faith are real, and they should be the stimulus to actually broaden and deepen your faith by yearning for an answer to the conflict. Having the courage to not run from the pain of life is actually good, perhaps a bit of a test, but at a minimum it's a challenge to grow. We are only as big and strong as our weakest link. We think we may have it all together until we get tested and tried, then it's time to meet the challenge to our faith. "There is no claim to virtue without temptation"

Answer 5

I don't think you are dumb.
It is a question that has a paradox and possibly no answer.
Yes He has a plan for us.
We won't know until it is over.
Yes He knows our future because God does not have the time constraints we have. He is there, He is here, always.
Free will is our choice of acknowledging Him with no physical limitations.
That is where we as humans are bound.
God is not physical. He cannot be.
So yes you do have a valid question, unfortunately I don't think anyone on earth can answer that or even understand it.

God Bless.

Answer 6

I do agree that God already knows the end from the beginning. However, He created us with freewill. God didn't create Robots.

Freewill means that even though God is omnipotent and all knowing man still must decide for himself whether or not he chooses God. That choice is still ours to make. God doesn't arbitrarily save a person because he is all knowing. We were created to glorify our creator by our choice. God doesn't force anyone against their will to love him. Those who will be saved at last will be saved because they personally accepted Christ as their Savior. Nothing is arbitrary.

John 3:16
Romans 10:9
Revelation 3:20
1John1:9
Revelation 22: 11-12

Answer 7

Enter throughthe narrow gate for the wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it---but smallis the gate and narrow the road that leds to life and only a few find it." Matt 7-13

SEEK and you will find knock and the door will open."

"I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me and I lay down my life for the sheep. John 10-14/15

"My sheep hear my voice , and I know them , and they follow me; and I give to them eternal life; and they shall never perish
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." John 10-27/28

Sing--"We are poor little lambs who have lost our way Baa,Baa,Baa." Hear the lyrics.

Last supper, Jesus said, "I am not of this world the dark prince rules this world."

Free will/free choice, call it what you will. Love can not be forced, "Love me by your own accord." Pre-destined if you
open up your heart to Him. Unconditional love He awaits your
decision, the door is always open.

You donot find answers with your head, you find them in your heart. Pray for wisdom all the rest will follow.
Kind of like, first love, love at first sight, "Passion" Love is blind. I donot second guess God any more I take Him at His word. I find when I say God, I am usually thinking Jesus.
Jeasus is the way the truth the light, "you come to the father through me." He is my real Knight in shinng armor!!!!!
Blessing of discovery.

Answer 8

Lemme put it to you this way:
If it meant that 'your faith isn't strong' or 'you have little faith' by finding this a valid question then you would be simply a slave to religion and following blindly even when something else in you tells you to question.
It is a GOOD thing to question your own faith and religion, not a sign of betrayal. Don't let anyone make you feel otherwise.

Answer 9

I like what God bless the pope had to say.
Lets think about it this way if you were in a realationship with a man and he was only there because you wanted him to be there would it be a meaningful relationship for the both of you. It is the same with your relationship with God. He gives us free will so we can either choose him or deny him.
I choose him and I have great peace.

Answer 10

We have the freewill to trust in God or not. He has a plan for all of us but it is our choice if we live a good life or a bad life. His plan for all of us is to live our life to the fullest and to try to live a life that is good and full of love. Our plans all differ, of course. But all he wants is faith in him and to trust in him. And the best gift of all comes at the end. You are not dumb or lacking in faith for asking this, you are simply wondering. But just always have trust and faith that God will be there with you in both the good and the bad. He loves you and wants nothing more than to see you succeed. But remember, it is not he who makes you fail or succeed it is yourself that determines that. He is only there to keep you going when you think you cannot go any longer.

Faith and trust.

Answer 11

Christian religion as we know is is an accummulation of many different texts, theories, and popular beliefs. A number of those are completely conflicting or without any actual basis in the Bible. You can't have both free will and predetermination. There is no biblical basis for the Trinity - that was invented by the Catholic church some 500 years after Jesus. Religion gets in trouble when it tries to answer rational or scientific questions. Don't over-think it, just worry about the basics - God is love; the beattitudes; love thy neighbor as thyself, etc.